


Ignition

by Ringshadow



Series: Trickster Souls [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (2012), The Sentinel
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, In any world where something is special someone will hate it, Justin's parents also suck, M/M, Sentinel/Guide Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:00:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ringshadow/pseuds/Ringshadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is a Guide and has known that most of his life, but all the money and time hasn't let him find his Sentinel.<br/>Justin Hammer is a dedicated pain in the ass and not someone Tony willingly associates with.<br/>Until a chance incident at an Expo reveals that Justin's a Sentinel, and in desperate need of help.</p><p>Start of a series, rating will change as series continues. Comments and suggestions loved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ignition

Tony remembered the first time he saw the coyote. His spirit animal was a crow, he’d known that since he was eight and hey it kind of made sense. He first saw the coyote while at a trade show, hung over in a hotel room and slowly waking up. The dose of Auracle he’d taken last night to be able to deal with a huge room full of people was wearing off, and while on it his own spirit animal was as substantial as a ghost. Now the crow looked and felt real as it hopped to his shoulder and away, landing next to another animal that was sprawled out in front of the balcony doors.

  
He’d about fallen out of bed, as it was he’d sat bolt upright and held his head with one hand, staring at it until he realized that yes, it was someone else’s spirit animal. And it was absolutely entirely beat to hell. The coyote sat up and rolled to its feet, hobbling over with one back leg tucked up close to its body. Half its tail was missing, its fur hung in patches and one ear was at a strange angle, but it still carried itself with a comfortable aloofness, a smugness.

  
Everything about the coyote said, bluntly, “I’m still alive, you motherfuckers.”

  
The shock to him was that it came right to him, burrowed against his legs and accepted his hands into its thick fur. That… was new. He’d seen other spirit animals in passing, but there was a no-touch policy. Unless..

  
“Hey.” He’d finally said, scratching under ears and jawline, watching the gold eyes that were laughing back at him. “Do you belong to my Sentinel? Where are they, huh? I’ve been looking for them.”

  
The coyote only gave a labored groan and pushed into his hands, which he thought was a yes, then the eyes looking at him went mournful, and his hands passed straight through on the next stroke, the coyote fading away, disappearing.

  
His Sentinel was on Auracle and had just dosed, he realized, sitting there with empty hands and a gnawing emptiness in his chest.

* * *

 

Auracle was widely held as a miracle drug, because it let Sentinels and Guides carry about their lives without constant flare ups. It even helped keep Sentinels from zoning out. They still could, but it was easier to pull them out of it. But, as with most things there were two camps. A lot of Sentinels and Guides swore by it, but a lot spat poison about it, especially those that had bonded. Because Auracle clouded your senses, shut the extra sections of your mind. Bonded Sentinels and Guides rarely took it because they got cut off from each other.

  
For the solo Guide or Sentinel, still seeking their partner, Auracle complicated matters because you couldn’t feel others while on it. It faded your own spirit animal and made the spirit animals of others invisible or near it.

  
Tony Stark was a solo Guide, and had been hunting for his Sentinel for ... for as long as he’d known, really, and had spent a considerable amount of money searching only to still be alone at over forty. And as active as his mind was, it was easy to get caught up, get overwhelmed and drowned in the minds of others if he was in a large crowd and he didn’t take the medicine.

  
Still, the coyote was a ray of hope, tentative proof that he did in fact have a Sentinel somewhere. And after that first time, he saw the coyote on and off. It sometimes just stuck its head in to check on him, often when he was crawling out of the bottom of a bottle. He got used to waking up to a hangover and a wet canine tongue licking his cheek or hand, but he had no better idea of who the coyote belonged to and the coyote had no ability to tell him (such was the nature of spirit animals). He saw the creature more often at trade shows, and it got to the point where he weaned himself off the Auracle as much as he could so he was open, so he could search.

  
It wasn’t until a conference he was at got raided by a bunch of teenage assholes with an agenda that he got the shock of his life.

  
He barely noticed what the masked idiots were yelling about nor did he care. They set off what could kindly be called sensory bombs in the main rooms of the conference, no real explosion but percussion and light and ridiculous noise and it had played havoc with the sentinels in the room and caused a general panic. The masked idiots were trashing the place too, and he’d just run toward the chaos, hands going into that signal and grinning when he heard a window crash, leaping and twisting as the armor linked up around him. Once he was in armor a different kind of panic emerged, and the attackers were easy to disarm and incapacitate. He dumped most of them into a large fountain , where they crawled out gasping into the arms of waiting officers that had just arrived.

  
He had the mask up and was looking around at the chaos, trying to assess if there was any injured, when the coyote reappeared, bounding up on three legs like usual, and he knelt, reaching out a hand. “Hey. Hey, boy, where’s your sentinel?” My sentinel, he added in his head, standing again and following the coyote through the mess. Then they were away from most of it, against one of the room walls where there were decorative planters and a male figure huddled seated against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest and locked up. Zoned, Tony realized, signaling for the armor to take leave of him and it did as he walked up, slowing the last few steps because shit, he knew who this was, even as the coyote pressed against the figure and looked at him piteously and a cascade of sensation tickled through his chest.

  
“JARVIS.” He said, lifting a hand to make sure his earpiece was positioned right. “Do you have anything about Justin Hammer being a Sentinel?”

  
“Checking now, sir.” There was a pause. “No, sir, there is nothing about Hammer being a Sentinel.”

  
That explained the Auracle, Tony thought, crouching on his toes and setting a hand on Justin’s shoulder. He really didn’t have a word for what he’d considered the other before this. A grating pain in the ass, maybe, even though he’d known that the mess around the Expo wasn’t entirely Justin’s design. He’d set it in motion certainly but looking back, he doubted the other businessman had wanted anything of what had happened. They really hadn’t spoken once since that all had happened, though he’d seen Justin at several of the shows he attended now that he thought about it. Shit. How had they talked and touched at Monaco, or any other time before this, without him realizing that Justin was a Sentinel? He hadn’t been drugged every time. How much of that shit was Justin taking?!

  
“Hey. Justin.” He said, thumb moving back and forth on his shoulder then giving up, shifting to one knee and cupping the other man’s face, pulling it up to look at him and seeing the familiar faded, hollow expression of one totally Zoned, drowning in one of their senses. “Justin, listen to me. Focus on me, okay, pick a sense and follow it, listen to my heart feel my touch. Come back.”

  
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting to be honest. He’d witnessed a few first meetings between Sentinels and their Guides and it’d been anything from utter relief as two lost souls collapsed into each other, to glee and dancing, to a snarling angry Sentinel in a combat fugue state crouched over their Guide. He’d have settled for.. a hug? Recognition? Acknowledgement?

  
What he hadn’t been expecting was for Justin to blink, suddenly back in the moment, then gape at him in something like terror and scramble against the floor, trying to back away but already backed against a wall and a planter. “No, this, no, Stark, what? I can’t, I…”

  
And Tony felt like the floor fell out from under him because Justin was desperately trying to deny him, throwing off his touching hands and huddling away. “Justin, stop, calm the fuck down, you just came out of a zone. You’re safe, it’s over…”

  
His words were on deaf ears, because Justin was already lost in his own world again, rummaging through his pockets desperately chanting for his meds and keening in fear when Tony gave up and grabbed him, drug him in and held him. It was a horrifying experience, because he could feel the puzzle pieces clicking between them but Justin was flailing and trying to get away. Then a paramedic arrived and all he could do was pass Justin over, the medic hitting him with Sentinel tranquilizers and getting him onto a stretcher.

  
Another paramedic started questioning him and Tony followed, feeling his crow on his shoulder and the coyote pressing against his legs as they walked, answering what few questions he could and trying not to cry because he’d finally, finally fucking found his Sentinel and his Sentinel didn’t want him.

* * *

 

The hospital let him stay with Justin and he’d called Pepper, who was unhappy but attempted to be understanding. He ended up huddled in a chair next to a hospital bed, listening to the doctors. They’d contacted Justin’s insurance, his personal doctors, and it was increasingly clear that none of Justin’s records stated what he was. It was, frankly, suspicious as all hell, and he had no answers for them, he’d had no idea either.

  
The room was meant for their kind though, soundproofed and air filtered and specialty fabrics, so when Justin jolted awake a few hours later he wasn’t being entirely overwhelmed at least. Tony had asked the doctors not to hit him with Auracle again, and the doctors had mutely showed him numbers suggesting that the other man had been taking them an unhealthy amount in the first place.

  
“Justin.” Tony said, watching the other look around in alarm then pick up his glasses from a bedside table. “You’re in a hospital. You were going into a fugue so they had to knock you out. We need to talk.”  
“No, we don’t, just get out.” It was said too fast, too acidic.

  
“Your spirit animal is in my lap, care to run that by me again?” Tony said, making himself not react to the again-shattering feeling of his Sentinel (his his HIS) trying to push him away. Justin shot a look at him and saw this was indeed true, and muttered something that sounded like ‘traitor.’ “I had a lot of questions, but… I think I figured this out from how this poor guy looks.” He stroked the coyote’s bad leg. “Some asshole in your life sent you to a reprogramming school where they told you Sentinels are bad and tried to break you.”

  
Justin flopped back and rubbed his face. “Since when do you give a goddamn about me?”

  
“I’m your Guide, you dick, work with me here. Am I right?”

  
There was a long silence, punctuated by the whisper of the ventilation, Justin rolling to face away while his coyote pressed into Tony even harder. “Yes.”

  
Even suspecting it, Justin admitting it was like a punch to the gut. Tony wrapped an arm around the coyote, stroked the ratty fur under his hand and tried not to think about how badly he wanted to wrap his arms around the huddled form on the hospital bed. And at the same time, he just felt bitter and sad and unwanted. “I’m so sorry that happened to you.”

  
“It was years ago. It doesn’t matter.”

  
“It does matter, because it’s what we're having to deal with now.” Tony sighed. “I don’t want to force you into anything but I cannot just walk away from you Justin. I’ve been waiting for years for you. I’m not going to give you up that easily. Please just talk to me.”

  
There was a long silence, then Tony was rewarded with Justin rolling over to face him, looking at him with shuttered eyes and a guarded expression. “Think rationally about this, Stark. We’ve never really gotten along no matter what I blustered about it being a friendly competition. And after what happened at the expo…”

  
“What, did you intend to blow it up?” Tony countered.

  
“No, of course not, I…”

  
“Exactly. Your hiring decision was fucking stupid but you know what, I get why you did it. And as drugged as you seem to be keeping yourself, you’ve probably spent years not being in a good frame of mind. Dammit, Justin, if no one knows you’re a sentinel how are you getting prescribed Auracle?”

  
“I have a good private doctor who’s understanding.” He sat up, slowly, sounding resigned.

  
Tony scoffed. “You have an utter quack who’s been borderline overdosing you, you mean.”

  
“I need high doses or I zone out.” Justin’s voice got tight. “And please, don’t use that as a reason why I need you. We are competitors. If I even let you in my damn corporate building let alone my office there would be industrial espionage questions.”

  
“I know. It’ll be a clusterfuck. But Sentinel/Guide pairs are protected by law. We’ll work it out.”

  
He looked away and growled restlessly, and for a split second the man Tony was looking at was entirely a Sentinel, a protector. “You don’t even like me. Why do you want me like that?”

  
“You’re my Sentinel.” Tony felt helpless, things starting to make sense in retrospect. “You don’t think that maybe, just maybe, the reason why we always got frustrated with each other is because we were so drugged our bodies couldn’t handle what was happening?”

  
Justin didn’t reply, for a long moment, then his head snapped up and his gaze went far away before his eyes closed. The coyote wormed out of Tony’s grasp and jumped on the bed to press into its owner before disappearing out the door. Justin was still for long enough Tony had started to get up because he was worried the other was zoning out, when Justin spoke. “There’s another Sentinel , here, coming this way. They’ve got a guide.”

  
“Anything you can tell me?” Tony was curious.

  
“One has hearing aids in.” Justin said after a beat. “I can hear it. They’re both in combat boots. Walk is military?”

  
“Hah.” Tony got the rest of the way up and went to the door, looking down the hall and grinning when a few minutes later Phil Coulson and Clint Barton rounded the corner, pacing each other in only the way a tightly bound Sentinel/Guide pair could. “Agent. Clint. Come to find me?”

  
“We heard you had an exciting day, Stark.” Coulson replied, trying to look over Tony’s shoulder and honestly surprised at how Justin looked, which was mostly dazed and confused. “Mind if we come in?”

  
“I don’t mind.” He nodded, stepping back into the room. “Justin, these are Guide Coulson and Sentinel Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye.”

  
“Sentinel Hammer.” Phil said by way of greeting, claiming the chair that Tony had had. Tony sat on the foot of the bed for lack of better option, Clint leaned on the wall.

  
Justin’s eyes were following Clint. “A sentinel with hearing aids?”

  
Clint shrugged. “Concussive blast of an explosion while hearing zoned. I was a five-sense sentinel, now I’m down to four.”

  
“Oh. Why are you here?” Justin couldn’t keep the frown off his face.

  
“I’m a SHIELD agent.” Phil replied. “The attack on the expo got our attention, particularly that Stark defended. We were just going to check up on the situation when the fact that he found you came up. A face to face seemed the best course of action.”

  
There was a long silence, during which a doctor appeared in the doorway and stayed until Tony looked at them. “Mr. Stark? A word if you don’t mind?”

  
“Certainly.” Tony stood and stepped out into the hall with the doctor, and after a moment Phil stood and followed, prompting Clint to move and occupy the chair that had just been vacated, propping one foot on the edge of the hospital bed and fixing Justin with a stare.

  
“What?” Justin asked after a beat, rankling at the presence of another Sentinel.

  
“Tony’s a friend.” Clint replied, focusing in on Justin. Even with the hearing aids, he could still focus that sense and it was obvious to him what Justin was, but to Clint, Justin just seemed… younger than he was. None of his cadences were settled, and his shielding was in shambles and rapidly deteriorating. “He’s been approached by a lot of Sentinels, over the years. I’d done research on him before we’d met, mostly because I’ve used a lot of the gear he used to make, you follow?”

  
“Yeah I follow.” Justin huffed and looked away. “I don’t know why he wants me.”

  
“Fuck, no wonder he looks like a kicked puppy.” Clint glared, then grinned when Justin growled at him. “Fucking finally.”

  
“Huh?”

  
“Just looking at you I’d say you were a normie who got roughed up in the incident earlier. You let me walk into the room with your guide and didn’t give me whatfor, bonded or not.” He crossed his arms.  
“I’m broken, okay, asshole?”

  
“Good. So’s Tony.”

* * *

 

“Mr. Stark, you’re going to have your hands full.” Phil was saying, holding up his badge to the doctor who was scrutinizing it and obviously considering if he should, in fact, say what he wanted to with Phil standing there. “Our records don’t have him as a Sentinel either, and I’m sure you’re aware that our records are a bit more comprehensive than most.”

  
“Yeah.” Tony sighed. “Someone sent him to reprogramming school, Agent.”

  
“That much is obvious.” Phil shifted slightly as his spirit animal padded up the hall to stand with them, Clint’s riding on its back.

  
Tony remembered, vividly, the first time he’d seen Phil’s spirit animal and had found it absolutely jarring. It was always hard to tell, really, but someone like Phil, he’d expected a dog or wolf or eagle. Just something American, really, even if that was cliché. But no, Phil had an African lion, huge and dark-maned. And just to further up the surreal, Clint didn’t have a hawk, but a grey macaw.

  
“I hate these cases.” The doctor said. “I’m not a specialist. You need to get him to one as soon as possible so they can start trying to salvage what they can. “

  
“Salvage? He’s not a shipwreck.” Tony frowned at him.

  
The doctor just shook his head slightly, opening a file. “We found his pharmacist.”

  
“Good. I’m going to sue them out of business.”

  
“Considering what they sent us, I support that.” He moved to show Tony and Phil the paperwork. “For his weight he’s taking double the dose three times as often. He should be braindead. What’s his behavior like?”

  
Tony was still staring at the paperwork, so Phil answered. “Like a fratboy trying to fit in at a country club. A bit goofy, forced humor, focus issues, grandiose opinion of self, questionable decision making skills, inability to work under pressure.”

  
“This is tricky. We have to cold turkey the Auracle, which means he’s going to zone at the drop of a hat as well as go through the usual symptoms of withdrawal. We need him out of the hospital as fast as possible and into a specialty clinic, a shielded building with medical professionals schooled in this.”

  
“I’ll take him home with me and get a private nurse.” Tony replied. “My house is set up for us.”

  
“The only prescription I’m writing at this point is for medicinal cannabis.” The doctor wrote it with a quick dart of the hand. “Do you want me to fax this file to you Mr. Stark?”

  
“Send a copy to each of us, I’ll give you the information.” Phil said. “The pharmacist is going to get a visit from badges tomorrow.”

  
“Thanks, Agent.” Tony took the prescription and the bag containing Justin’s personal effects. “Can you get us a ride back?”

  
“Of course.”

* * *

 

Justin jumped when Tony came back into the room, fingers digging into the sheet. He was sitting up with his knees partly pulled to his chest, shivering in the hospital gown and trying to remember when he last felt like this. Late teens, he thought, clinging to his awareness as best he can even as everything around him threatened to bury him, drown him.

  
Clint was strong, an echoing bass of a heartbeat and faint electronic noise of hearing aids, scent complimented by some subtle body wash or cologne, leather and… some kind of weapons oil? He jerked back when one of Tony’s hands smoothed over his shoulder, shaking and putting his head in his hands.

  
“I’m not going to be getting any medicine am I.” He hated how he sounded, out of control and desperate.

  
“No. You’re coming to my place and you’re going cold turkey.” Tony replied evenly. “Clint, could you step out so he can get dressed?”

  
“Yeah sure.” Clint stood and stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

  
“Do I have a choice?” He couldn’t even bother to be bodyshy, he just wanted out of here, pulling on his boxers before losing the hospital gown.

  
“Well, yes and no. I can’t force you, but the doctors will try to declare you unfit if you don’t come with me, and they’ll send you for lockdown in some specialty clinic.”

  
He fumbled the button on his pants several times, swatted Tony’s hand when he tried to help do it up. “I hate this. I always have. Why do I have to be this way.”

  
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Tony pulled his hands away. Justin was unhealthy thin and pale, illness and a sweat sheen already creeping over his skin, shivers starting. “You’re going to be better soon.”  
“Stop patronizing me!” Justin snarled, shoving away and struggling into his undershirt, gasping for air.

  
“I’m not. Please calm down. If you fugue now…” He can hear himself begging, and he wondered when it had come to this. Somehow the other man heard the silent threat of tranquilizers and medical lockdown, and took a slower breath.

  
Justin was half dressed when Phil led them out of the hospital, already having taken care of everything needed for release. His buttondown hung open over his undershirt, and a specialist tried to talk to them the whole way but he didn’t even seem to hear it, one hand landing on one of Tony’s shoulders and squeezing tighter and tighter.

  
“He doesn’t know!” Tony finally snarled, putting Justin behind him and himself between Justin and the specialist. “He can’t answer any of it! He doesn’t know .”

  
“I’m just trying to do my job.” The specialist replied peevishly. “I understand that…”

  
“I seriously doubt that.” Tony went still and held a hand up because Justin had pressed against his back, the taller man’s face against the back of his neck and breathing going slow, both hands on Tony’s shoulders and the shivering slowing. “Justin?”

  
Justin didn’t really hear it, letting his focus shift and sink. He’s in a hospital and they know, he reasoned. No one’s going to yell at him for zoning here. He can risk it once or at least apologize his way out of it. For now he’s in lost in the smell of Tony’s skin and hair and shampoo, the smell of metal and fire that clung to the other man. The reactor, he realizes, he can smell the warm alloy, smell the coils of it and the rare heavy metal at the center of it all. Distantly he can feel what was left of his mental shields adjusting, a few going back up. It’s a fortress with the walls broken and the roof caved in, decrepit and untended, ruins, and he felt so ashamed because he was realizing he wasn’t alone in the remains of the fortress anymore. There’s another presence, walking carefully along the outer edge and righting a few stones, and he can’t remember the last time anyone had done that.

  
So he pulls them in, reaches out and catches the presence and tries desperately to clean the place up to be a bit of safety for them, and it’s so fucking hopeless, more walls come down and crumble as old supports rot away, then everything comes down and he just clings to the other person as tight as he can, a single lighthouse in a hurricane.

* * *

 

“Stark. STARK!” Phil barked, shaking him once and was rewarded when Tony opened his eyes, looking absolutely wrecked. “You are broadcasting. We need to get you both out of here.”

  
“He’s zoned on me and his shields just totally crashed.” Tony swallowed hard. Justin had him in what was basically a bearhug from behind, shaking.

  
“That doesn’t surprise me. Blame the Auracle. Users have shields made of paper. Just get him out of the zone. Now.”

  
Not like he needed any encouragement, twisting slowly in Justin’s grip and rocking up on his tiptoes slightly to speak into his ear. “Justin. You need to come back.” As he said it, he tugged gently on the mental presence and felt a dull headache set in as Justin clutched tighter but slowly checked back in, jerking and gasping as he did. “There you are. Come on.”

  
“I feel you.” Justin sounded numb.

  
“Yes and you would have bonded him if your brain wasn’t entirely broken wiring.” Clint snapped, grabbing them both and dragging them down the hallway by their shirts. “A nurse just called me and said you guys apparently freaked out someone four floors up so you both need to expediently move your asses.”

  
“Am I in trouble?”

  
Tony wished he didn’t know that voice, because that was less a man and more an early teen, scared and lost. “No.”

  
“But I zoned.”

  
Tony exchanged a black look with Clint and Phil, and barely noticed getting to SHIELD’s car.

  
The ride to his Malibu house was spent in silence, and he’s only so glad it was a local expo. Somehow he’s leaning on the door and Justin is huddled against him, gone again. The doctor did warn me, he thought numbly. Justin’s fingertips were resting on the very edge of the arc reactor, and he could barely sense Justin focusing on it, the vibration of it.

  
“I owe you one, Agent.” He finally said. “I owe you a lot actually.”

  
“Yes, you do, but nothing for this.” Phil replied, driving. Clint was sprawled in the passenger seat staring out the window from behind sunglasses, pinching the bridge of his nose and trying to keep his shields up against their presence. “If anything else I feel slightly responsible. We had this guy under surveillance for ages. We should have known.”

  
His house is thankfully quiet and still when he arrived, because everything seemed to overwhelm Justin. Getting him back up and out of the car was arduous enough, only to have him go still and sway on the front walk to his house, his rocking pacing the waves of the ocean. Tony pulled him back up again, and Phil helped get Justin in the house, promising to share any information he found.

  
Then it was just them, standing in the living room, Justin looking hunted and haunted both, arms wrapped around himself and staring at Tony.

  
“I don’t really remember coming here.”

  
“That doesn’t surprise me.” Tony replied. “Here’s the playbook. You’re going to drink a bunch of water, borrow some pajamas from me and go to sleep. You’re probably going to sleep a long time. Don’t worry about zones, or fugues, or broadcasting. Do what you have to do to feel better. I’ll be here the whole time. We don’t move forward, we don’t talk, we don’t do anything until you come out to this.”

  
“Since when is the guide in charge?” Justin muttered, letting himself get towed by a hand, following Tony through the house and staring at the floor because he’s scared of getting too focused on the décor.

  
“The sentinel protects the people and the guide protects the sentinel.” Tony recited, feeling himself smile because whether Justin had meant it or not, he’d just admitted Tony was his Guide. And maybe, just maybe, that was enough for him to make it through the next few days.

**Author's Note:**

> Changed spacing on request, hope its better.
> 
> Timeline is now after IM2, but before Avengers!


End file.
